Miniature Monolithic Transmitter for Laser Rangefinding

"Pulsed laser rangefinders/illuminators provide critical sensor data for military and civilian inhabited/uninhabited vehicle guidance as well as reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. However, the laser source must be eyesafe, robust,low-cost, low-mass, and compact as well as possess short coherence length and high beam quality. Currently fielded laser rangefinders tend to be undesirably bulky, heavy and costly with misalignment-prone discrete laser components. Moreover, they may noteasily scale to higher average or peak powers required for active imaging. The Army Night Vision Laboratory has addressed these issues by developing a robust "monoblock" laser-OPO transmitter. To augment the monoblock, CTI executed Phase 1 demonstrationsof key technical extensions that retain its ruggedness, size, and power scalability while providing: (a) lower cost, (b) increased misalignment tolerance, (c) reduced sensitivity to temperature and thermal loading for power-scaling, (d) neardiffraction-limited beam quality, and (e) shorter temporal pulses (1-2ns) for increased rangefinder accuracy and compatibility with 3-D active imaging. Phase II will deliver two prototype transmitters, one diode and one flashlamp-pumped, each beingcompatible with illuminator and rangefinder requirements. The diode-pumped unit will be shock hardened for small armaments. The program leverages CTI's expertise in developing eyesafe wavelength lasers for